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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Following consumer complaints, a
regional ad for its Big Mac that parodies mental illness -- featuring a
familiar photo of a woman who appears to be crying with her head in her
hand -- has been yanked by the fast-food giant from Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority subway trains. The headline in the ad states:
"You're not alone." But the small print underneath says, "Millions of
people love the Big Mac."

Worst of all: The ad includes a
toll-free phone number that connects consumers to McDonald's customer
satisfaction line. A recording asks consumers if they want to share an
"experience" that they had at a McDonald's restaurant.

"The worst
possible situation is if someone in an emotional crisis were to see that
image and call that number," says Bob Carolla, spokesman for the
National Alliance on Mental Illness. "It would be a cruel mistake."

Mistake,
indeed. The public relations blunder comes at a time other big-name
brands have made similar PR miscues. A recent Ford ad in India depicted
sexy women tied up in the back of a Ford Figo. Nabisco has received
complaints about a Wheat Thins spot featuring a puppet who is so
obsessed with the savory crackers that it must be tied in a
straitjacket by mental health workers. And now this McDonald's ad, which
appeared on subway trains in the Boston area.

McDonald's has apologized, blaming its regional
agency for posting an ad that it did not approve. "We can confirm this
ad was not approved by McDonald's," the statement says. "As soon as we
learned about it, we asked that it be taken down immediately."

Pam
Hamlin, president of the Boston office of the ad agency Arnold
Worldwide -- which remains McDonald's regional agency -- also
apologized, in a statement. "Arnold apologizes for its mistake to
McDonald's and to anyone who was offended by the ad," she says. "We've
addressed the issue and have improved our approval process."

But the damage has been done.

Paine,
the PR specialist, says McDonald's needs to be more transparent and not
just finger-point at its ad agency. "In an ideal world, they would be
more transparent about the approval process" that was not obeyed by the
agency, she says.

Carolla, the NAMI spokesman, says that
advertising agencies tend to be the worst offenders in perpetuating
mental illness stereotypes. "Either they don't think," he says, "or they
just don't care."

About Me

I am full-time Mass Communication faculty at Towson University in Maryland and adjunct faculty in the City University of New York (CUNY) Master's in Disability Studies program.
I research media and disability issues and wrote a 2010 book on the subject: Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media, published by Advocado Press.
The media have real power to define what the public knows about disability and that's what I research.